On our Way to Canada! September 5, 2011

The Northern Lights are a colorful dance of lights in the night sky formed by the interplay of charged particles from the solar wind and from the upper layers of the Earth’s atmosphere. The show is usually only visible between late August and early May when visibility reveals a glowing sheet across the sky or a dance of vivid colors. We’re here at the right time, but, unfortunately, we had only cloudy, overcast skies during our visit to the Arctic area. So I am still waiting for my chance to see the Northern Lights.

Today we are at sea and making our way to Newfoundland. Unfortunately, our weather is also going to cause some problems in comfort. The Captain told us yesterday that we are expecting 24 foot seas and 55 mph winds, so this ship is going to move MUCH more than it has recently. Unfortunately, the winds are actually consistently 65mph and gusting to 73mph. Ray says I don’t even want to look out the window as the horizon is moving up and down drastically. I don’t know if this is hurricane-related or just normal North Atlantic storms. The Captain says its just two fronts meeting and the barometer was 995, which is as low as a hurricane. It is called a Polar Frontal Depression.

I won’t be doing much today as Ray says going on the upper decks is like being on a crazy sadistical elevator with the floor going up and down and up and down. Amazingly, I haven’t been seasick at all this time, even though it’s much more motion to the boat this cruise. But I’m not taking any chances. So I will entertain myself with movies on TV, reading books, and card games on my laptop.
Strangely tonight we will set our clocks back HALF an hour. Weird. Tonight was another formal night—5 on this cruise total, so we dressed up again.

We had an announcement from the Captain today informing us that Hurricane Katia may cause us some problems. He is talking with the National Hurrican Service and staying updated by them on where she will be and when. Supposedly her track leads her right to New York at the moment—she would be about 300 miles south when we get there. But that could easily change. This may cause some changes in our plans, but we’ll see.